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A lackluster economy, drug violence in Mexico, fewer people retiring early, and health concerns have caused a drop in the number of Winter Texans visiting Rio Grande Valley RV parks this season, park managers and residents say.
Numbers are down as much as 25 percent at many RV parks at the start of the season that runs from January through February, they said.
“They were great last year, but this year they’re down,” Barbara North, manager of First Colony Mobile and RV Park in San Benito, said.
First Colony has seen a 15 percent decrease due to the nation’s tough economy and fear of violence in Mexico, North said.
Penny Simpson, a professor who researches tourism at the University of Texas-Pan American a summer 2011 survey of 130 Winter Texans hinted numbers could drop about 5 percent this winter.
In her survey, Winter Texans cited health as the top factor behind their decision to stay home this year, Simpson said.
Anita Pearson, manager of Park Place Estates RV park in Harlingen said, “They’re a little down from what they were last year,” about 5 percent lower than last year, when the 859-site park was at 85 percent capacity.
Pearson blamed the drop on a national trend that’s leading Americans to work past the traditional retirement age of 65.
“People are working longer. They’re not retiring as young,” Pearson said. “We’re not getting early retirees because people are not retiring as early as they used to. They’re doing other things, like taking cruises and time shares and not staying in one place for six months.”
Barbara Baumhofer, a retired factory supervisor from Mora, Minn., said hard times and illness among an aging Winter Texan population dropped numbers from 7 to 10 percent at Victoria Palms Resort in Donna.
Bonnie Klaver said she hasn’t seen as many younger retirees at Texas Trails RV Resort in Pharr.
“The younger people aren’t coming down as much,” said Klaver, a retired farmer from Webster City, Iowa, who has spent 11 winters in the Valley. “They aren’t RVers. They probably don’t have the money to do it yet.”
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DVD: Winterizing and Storing your RV You've had a great year camping, now it's time to put your RV away for the winter. What do you do? Where do you start? These are common questions, ones that RV expert Mark Polk will answer for you in this instructional DVD. Watch detailed step by step instructions on how to properly winterize and store your RV. A printed checklist comes with your DVD.